Kawasaki Blends Clean Hydrogen and Internal Combustion

While electric vehicles are getting plenty of (understandable) attention these days, they aren’t the only alternative to their gas-powered counterparts hitting roads and racetracks across the country. Last month, the racing series currently known as Extreme E announced that it was changing its name to Extreme H and focusing on hydrogen-powered vehicles — and now, Kawasaki just announced that it has begun testing a hydrogen-powered motorcycle.

The test of this vehicle at Suzuka Circuit marks a breakthrough in the company’s research, which kicked off in March of last year and has — as per Kawasaki’s announcement — the goal of producing a commercially available hydrogen-powered motorcycle sometime in the 2030s. The engineering of the prototype motorcycle combines hydrogen power with an internal combustion engine; the end result is a ride whose output is, according to Kawasaki, “mainly water and a very small amount of CO2.”

For the prototype, Kawasaki built on their work with the Ninja H2, creating a hydrogen-powered version of its 998cc In-Line Four Supercharged Engine and modifying the motorcycle’s chassis to support a hydrogen fuel system.

It’s worth noting here that Kawasaki isn’t the only vehicle manufacturer currently exploring hydrogen-powered vehicles. Autoblog’s Ronan Glon pointed to the similarities between Kawasaki’s motorcycle and the technology used for Toyota’s hydrogen-powered Corolla.

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Both Kawasaki and Toyota are members of HySE, along with some of their competitors — specifically, Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda. (The organization’s name is an acronym for “Hydrogen Small mobility and Engine technology.”) The organization describes itself as focusing on “research on hydrogen engine systems for small mobility,” with a stated goal of eventually working with a broader set of overseas automakers as well.

We’re still a long way from seeing a commercially available hydrogen-powered motorcycle — and, as Autoweek‘s Mark Vaughan observed, there are likely some infrastructural challenges that’ll need to be dealt with before that day comes. Still, a carbon-neutral future is one worth pursuing, and if the road that gets us there involves the roar of a motorcycle’s engine, what’s not to like?